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Last week's airing of Major League Baseball and NHL games, the NFL draft and the NBA playoffs highlighted the opportunities professional sports offer restaurants to increase brand awareness and sales through partnerships with players, teams and leagues. Companies including Domino's Pizza, Dairy Queen, Papa John's Pizza, McDonald's and Bojangles' drive marketing through sponsorships and other efforts with Major League Baseball, the NFL, NASCAR and the Olympics.

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The highly anticipated Fox series "Pitch," which focuses on a female pitcher in Major League Baseball, will help pave the way for more female players in male-dominated sports, said series creator and executive producer Dan Fogelman. "A lot of people, when they see the trailers, literally say, 'Is this based on a true story?' I think it's going to happen soon and in multiple sports," Fogelman said.

Bojangles' Restaurants will focus on building market share within an 11-state footprint this year, Bojangles' Executive Vice President and General Counsel Eric Newman said. "We are the fastest-growing freestanding QSR in the country right now. We are also the fastest-growing chicken chain in the country. We're opening 55 to 60 restaurants this coming year, one every six days," he said.

Bojangles' Restaurants is opening a new restaurant every week on average, expanding its 553 restaurants across 11 states, the District of Columbia and three international locations, Executive Vice President Eric Newman said. He added Bojangles' has set itself apart in the quickservice industry with its all-day breakfast service, which accounts for about 40% of the company's business, never-frozen chicken and fresh food.

An increasing number of restaurant operators said they see the benefit of the federal E-verify system to identify undocumented workers, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Restaurant Association and ImmigrationWorks USA. "It's a way to level the playing field. Employers don't want to be in a situation where they're abiding by the law, but a competitor down the street is not," ImmigrationWorks USA President Tamar Jacoby said.

The National Football League has filed a lawsuit to block single-game betting on NFL games in Delaware, a move that state House Majority Leader Peter Schwartzkopf called "blatant hypocrisy." Other sports leagues have joined the lawsuit, which also seeks to prevent betting on professional baseball, basketball and hockey games. Schwartzkopf notes in a two-page letter to the NFL's commissioner that the league has contracts with television networks that promote gambling on their Web sites.